http://www.watblog.com/2008/09/18/telecom-italia-bags-49-stake-in-unitech-wireless/ The Refreshing Blog on Web, Advertising and Technology in India! Fri, 19 Mar 2010 02:58:44 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://www.watblog.com/2008/09/18/telecom-italia-bags-49-stake-in-unitech-wireless/comment-page-1/#comment-12906 Morten Hegge Sat, 22 Nov 2008 09:49:22 +0000 http://www.watblog.com/?p=5169#comment-12906 I beleive Telenor has bought a 60% stake in Unitech Wireless: Norwegian carrier Telenor has paid US$ 1.1 billion for a 60 % stake in Unitech Wireless, a new licensee which is yet to roll-out its operations in India. Unitech has spectrum licenses for all 22 circles in India and plans to launch services by mid 2009. Buying a stake in new licensees has become a common route for foreign operators to enter the Indian market. The Indian mobile market has been growing at an enormous pace, adding more than 9 million subscribers every month with almost 700 million rural subscribers yet to be tapped. No doubt there is a huge opportunity for existing as well as for new players, but grabbing new subscribers and making a dent in existing operators' market share will not be easy. New players, especially foreign operators, will find that the Indian market dynamics are very different from other emerging markets. Telenor will need to replicate its successful model from other Asian markets and most significantly line up a broad set of ultra low cost handset vendors. I beleive Telenor has bought a 60% stake in Unitech Wireless:
Norwegian carrier Telenor has paid US$ 1.1 billion for a 60 % stake in Unitech Wireless, a new licensee which is yet to roll-out its operations in India. Unitech has spectrum licenses for all 22 circles in India and plans to launch services by mid 2009. Buying a stake in new licensees has become a common route for foreign operators to enter the Indian market. The Indian mobile market has been growing at an enormous pace, adding more than 9 million subscribers every month with almost 700 million rural subscribers yet to be tapped. No doubt there is a huge opportunity for existing as well as for new players, but grabbing new subscribers and making a dent in existing operators’ market share will not be easy. New players, especially foreign operators, will find that the Indian market dynamics are very different from other emerging markets. Telenor will need to replicate its successful model from other Asian markets and most significantly line up a broad set of ultra low cost handset vendors.

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